How I Published a Bestseller, Got a 6-figure Book Contract, & Made a Million Dollars

What was the most amazing year of your life? 2015 was a big one for me. A lot can happen in a year.

That year, I was on the cusp of something big — and I knew it.

At the time, I’d published two traditional books and one self-published eBook. I had a growing online business and a decent-sized email list. But I felt like something we missing. I knew I was capable of more but didn’t know how to reach my potential.

Around that time, I had a conversation with a successful friend, someone who went from being an unknown artist to becoming a millionaire in just a few years. When I asked this friend how he did it, he told me a story. Here’s what he said:

You know, I went from making $50,000 a year to 300,000 because I set a goal and hit it. But then the next year I got lazy and didn’t set a goal at all. I don’t know why. I just didn’t. And at the end of that year, I did about the same amount of business as the previous year. I didn’t grow. So I realized something. When I set a goal, I hit it. And when I don’t, I just kind of drift through life.

The next year my friend set a goal to double his income. And he did. The following year he set a goal to make a million dollars. And he did that too. Since then he’s continued to set goals and hit them, whether they be financial or personal.

That spoke to me. I realized there’s power in goal setting when you do it the right way. You just need the right tools.

The year that changed everything

Now, back to 2015. I knew this could be a big year for me, but I was going to have to set some goals and stick to them. So I set a few:

Publish a bestselling book and sell at least 50,000 copies in the first year.

Get a six-figure advance for my next book contract by the end of the year.

Make a million dollars in revenue from my business.

I had never done any of these things before. My most successful book had sold fewer than 20,000 copies. My previous book advance was for $55,000. And the previous year, my business had done something like $350,000 in sales.

In 2015, all that changed:

I launched The Art of Work, which hit multiple bestseller lists two weeks in a row and went on to sell over 53,800 copies in the first year.

The success of the book launch led to another book contract with a $150,000 advance.

My email list grew to over 100,000 subscribers, and the business did over a million dollars in sales, allowing me to hire some full-time team members and grow the company.

That fall, my wife and I moved into the house of our dreams and got pregnant with our second child. At the end of the year, I looked back and realized my friend was right. When you set a goal, you have a good chance of hitting it; and when you don’t, you have virtually zero of hitting it.

Crossing the finish line

Please hear my heart on this. This is not about money. It’s not about success or fame or any of that. None of those things ever made me any happier.

What has changed my happiness, however, is my ability to achieve goals. When I am accomplishing what I never thought were possible, my confidence grows. And when confidence increases, so does my happiness.

Achieving your goals really can make you happier. But you have to set — and achieve — the right kind of goals. For years, I had dreams that never came true. But once I learned how to be smarter with goal setting, all that changed. And do you know where I learned that? Michael Hyatt.

In January of 2015, a year that was a game-changer for me, I took Michael’s online course 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever and I was skeptical. How can you possibly plan an entire year in five days, and actually achieve those goals?

But Michael is a friend and a high achiever, so I trusted him. And guess what? In 2015, I had the most amazing year of my life. It was a year that allowed me to achieve was I assumed was impossible.

Since then, things have only gotten better.

This is the power of setting goals. Whether you aspire to change your relationships, your finances, your career, I know that you are better off setting goals than not.

I loved the fact that you mentioned that it was not about making money, but about the ability to achieve those goals. That makes anyone happy, to know they set a goal and fulfilled it. I signed up for the course, and already see how this is just one of the best investment I did for myself.

I think the process of setting goals are like adding fuel of a car. It allows you to move. Adjust your direction if it is wrong is another issue. And you can do anytime. But if you don’t have a goal, you won’t move anywhere, be it the right or wrong direction. And this is bad. To often moving in the wrong direction is as valuable as the right one. It allows you to learn things.

Because of all this inspiration, I now have 4 ebooks in the works, the first is ready to be released later this week I hope. The next 3 should be following soon after. These are all shorter length free ones and will see if I can use them as a step up to a “real” book for sale later on. Thanks Jeff for the inspiration!!

Bestselling author and creativity expert Jeff Goins dismantles the myth that being creative is a hindrance to success by revealing how an artistic temperament is, in fact, a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

For centuries, the myth of the starving artist has dominated our culture, seeping into the minds of creative people and stifling their pursuits. But the truth is that the world’s most successful artists did not starve. In fact, they capitalized on the power of their creative strength. In Real Artists Don’t Starve, Jeff Goins debunks the myth of the starving artist by unveiling the ideas that created it and replacing them with fourteen rules for artists to thrive.

About Me

I’m Jeff Goins, the best-selling author of five books including The Art of Work and Real Artists Don’t Starve. Every week, I share new tips on creative work. Enter your email below and I’ll send you a free book.

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I'm Jeff Goins, the best-selling author of five books including The Art of Work and Real Artists Don't Starve. Every week, I share new tips on creative work. Enter your email below and I'll send you a free book.